November 13, 2004
| Reporter | Brad Roberts |
From Tony Robinson on boatertalk::
TR. Little Hurricane Creek, E. Fork of the Obey River. New
Forum: BoaterTalk
Date: Nov 13 2004, 4:35 GMT
From: TonyRobinson
The northern Plateau here in TN got most of the rain today, so the very seldom run (this was the second descent) Little Hurricane Creek seemed like a good bet. Little Hurricane is a tributary of Hurricane and a much better way to start. The level was 2.5' on the regular Hurricane put-in bridge. This is minimum for Little Hurricane with 2.75' being much better. The problem with the higher water is that The Big Baboon on reg Hurricane below the confluence gets very big.
Don't run this creek unless you plan to run all the major rapids as there aren't that many drops to begin with and if you start carrying it is more of a portagefest than fun. On LH the first drop 'the Log Slot' amazingly didn't have a log. I was hoping it would as it is scary tight but runable, though not by us. The next drop is 'Wall of Doo-Doo' and it also remains unrun. It needs more water to cover the potential pin rocks at the bottom. That bring you to 'The Fickle Finger of Fate'. it's a long walk the plank rapid with bad consequences if you take the ten foot fall off either side. The right side would just hurt as it is quite shallow, but the left side looks bad. The water falls off into a closed out room with the water exiting out left to right under the planks you are riding. It's hollw underneath just like a real plank pirates walk. At the end of the plank turn hard right to land in a narrow slot at the bottom to find deep enough water and to avoid the big boulder downstream. This is one very cool looking rapid.
This goes directly into a fun long multipart slide called
'Raffle the Spatula'. Watch out for the rock at the bottom. Below this is an Island. Go left for a rapid called 'Tang'.
A couple hundred more yards it the confluence with Hurricane.
A couple hundred yards downstream look for large boulders on the right and get out right to scout 'the Big Baboon'. This is the biggest and longest rapid on the run and has only been run twice. It's a 5.1 or 5.2, especially at higher water. Beware the entrance pushes you against the left wall and wants to flip you. The next part is the crux. the hole either lets you pop through and do the 8' boof, or is buries you and takes you on a submerged s-turn to the left. the next three drops have sticky holes if you don't boof and would suck for swimming. Another couple hundred yard downstream is the next big drop. Don't run the slot on the right as it has a hole that on the creeks first descent cartwheeled an 11'6' boat until it broke both ends and sucked the life lacket mostly off the poor victim. Instead run the slide-slot over the boulder in the center. Make sure you have an elbow pad on your right elbow. You will be dragging it to stay upright.
this leads straight into a great right boof on the V-ledge just below. Another couple hundred yards brings you to a section with lots of head high boulders. Beware of a slot on the right bank in here as last time I was there I got sucked straight down and fell into an air filled cave I could paddle out of. It's kind of like the black box move at the bottom of Climax on the Russel Fork and not recommended. At the bottom of this section is a large boulder blocking most the creek with most water going left. Beware that as soon as you go left you will see that most of the water over there goes under the left side of the rock which overhangs the leftmost 15' and is just above the water. Below this the creek calms down with no more big drops for 1.5 miles to the Obey. The unusal thing here is that you are in small limestone bedrock canyons, something which is unusual in Tennessee.
At the Obey the flow triples and it's a wide open river for a couple miles to the take-out. The one very cool thing is 'Surf City'. The surfing waves are great here, even in creek boats, with eddy service to all of them. The upper one has a right shoulder curl that would give you surfboard like lip moves. To bad there isn't a parking lot right there. Below this it's a half mile to the take-out through a big boulder section that remindes me of the Bowling Alley section on N. Chick.
Overall LH doesn't have near as many good drops as your typical Waldens Ridge creek to the south but 'The Big Baboon' and 'The Fickle Finger' will definatly get you attention. If the northern Plateau is where the rain falls, try a litttle adventure and give Little Hurricane a go.